Adobe backs down on price gouging

Adobe has bowed to political pressure to reduce its Australian prices after it was summoned to appear before the federal IT pricing inquiry in Canberra on March 22.

Microsoft, Apple and Adobe have been accused of stonewalling efforts by politicians to figure out why Australians pay so much more than Americans for identical tech products. Now Adobe has said that access to Adobe's Creative Cloud product, which includes Photoshop and the rest of its suite of professional tools such as Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro and InDesign, has been reduced to $49.99 a month from $62.99.

“Single app subscriptions for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Pro, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, SpeedGrade, Acrobat Pro have been reduced to $19.99 per month from $24.99 per month,” said Adobe. “Muse has been reduced to $14.99 per month from $18.99 per month; Edge Inspect has been reduced to $9.99 per month from $12.99 per month.”

Adobe Australia communications manager Suzie Brady said the nominal prices were the same as in the US except for the change in currency. Adoble also confirmed that the software prices at retail stores and for business customers would remain the same. She said that the company was “eventually moving away from boxed copies”, and the digital subscription service provided benefits such as automatic upgrades in the cloud.